School for A Course In Miracles
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Although the term resistance appears infrequently in A Course in Miracles, it is nonetheless a key concept in the process of students learning the mind-changing lessons of forgiveness that are the Course’s central teaching. Indeed, it is the only concept that can satisfactorily explain a phenomenon experienced by most (if not all) students of the Course at some point or another in their work with it. This is the seeming paradox, on the one hand, of consciously and most sincerely attempting to learn, live, and practice the Course principles under the guidance of Jesus or the Holy Spirit, while on the other hand, experiencing the ongoing frustration of not doing just that. Most spiritual seekers are familiar with the famous words of St. Paul, who exclaimed out of this same sense of frustration: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Romans 7:19). This article explores the issue of resistance in Course students’ efforts to put into practice its principles of forgiveness as taught by their Inner Teacher, the Holy Spirit.
As with so many other areas that touch on the process of healing in A Course in Miracles, the work of Sigmund Freud offers us many parallels which underscore the importance of understanding the dynamics of the problem and its solution. Very early in his psychoanalytic work, Freud observed that his patients were not improving, despite the insights he was offering them as to the cause of their neurosis. It eventually dawned on him that the problem lay in the fact that the patients did not want to get better, a dynamic he termed resistance:
…the [therapeutic] situation led me at once to the theory that by means of my psychical [i.e., psychological] work I had to overcome a psychical force in the patients which was opposed to the pathogenic ideas becoming conscious…. This work of overcoming resistances is the essential function of analytic treatment…. (Studies on Hysteria by Freud (with J. Breuer), 1893, Vol. II, p. 268; Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, 1917, Vol. XVI, p. 451).(1)
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We are thankful for one thing alone:
God has given the gift of love to each of us.
The ego is grateful because He has favored us in some special way while others suffer.
Salvation is an equal playing field on which everyone has been given everything. (There is nothing the ego scorns more than indiscriminate love.)
It is our responsibility to see it that way because that is the way it is. The way out of hell is the same for everyone. We must learn to see the world forgiveness sees.
Let forgiveness extend to everyone without exception. Do not exclude anyone. There is only One Son of God: Christ.
(The words God, Christ and Son of God are symbols of symbols. They stand for Love. Love is Oneness.)
Saying “we are one” is not the same as Oneness. While we identify ourselves as separated selves– separate from our Creator and separate from others– our profession (according to the Course) is to exclude no one from love. This is the means given us to reach the gates of Oneness: accept God’s Love by being loving.
As the lesson points out, we “earn” (symbolically) the right to love by being loving. God isn’t withholding love from us. We are keeping it from ourselves. Earning the right is a way of saying we can give love until we accept that we are love. It’s a wonderful plan.
We have been given everything.
First of all, we never changed reality so it remains Love and we are still loveable. Secondly, our first loving action is to bless the world with forgiveness. FOR THIS we should be grateful. How beautiful. How clean and simple and perfect is that? Who is unwilling to take part?
“You will be bound till all the world is seen by you as blessed, and everyone set free of your mistakes and honored as he is. You made him not; no more yourself. And as you free the one the other is accepted as he is.” Lesson 200
We can offer our friends, family, colleagues, partners, friends and enemies alike, their freedom by looking at the thoughts we hold against them and deciding we prefer not to keep that point of view. In wanting to see differently we will.
When our forgiveness is complete we will have total gratitude.
The Denver based School for A Course in Miracles (formerly School of Reason) was founded in 2007 by three long-time A Course in Miracles students in response to a perceived need for Course classes that present a unified, accurate and consistent understanding of the Course’s rather complex thought systems. We, ourselves, have found this consistency in the study materials generated by eminent Course scholar, Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.
Even after 20 or 30 years of independent study of the Course, the benefits in working with Dr. Wapnick’s material was so profound for us that we wanted all students to experience the accelerated learning that takes place when using his insightful and illuminating material. Through the use of his books, CD’s and DVD’s his influence is found in all the offerings of School for A Course in Miracles (SFACIM). Be sure to check out some of Ken’s brief 10 minute youtube video presentations on different Course topics, and visit his Foundation’s website @ facim.org. Ken made his transition in Dec. 2013.
For the serious student the Course presents a lifetime practice of healing and forgiveness. School for A Course in Miracles offers classes and study groups for every stage of the journey. A student can see a path of Course education before him and be assured of consistency in the message and high quality of teaching and mentoring.
More on Ken and his Foundation:
Kenneth Wapnick taught and wrote about A Course in Miracles for more than 35 years, publishing more than 30 books and over 200 audio and video recordings of his classes and lectures, some works authored with his wife, Gloria. He is widely regarded as the world’s foremost teacher of the Course, which he has said is the most important spiritual document for our age. Kenneth, with a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, was an associate of Dr. Helen Schucman, scribe of the Course, and Dr. William Thetford, Helen’s close friend, colleague, and collaborator in the scribing. Kenneth worked with Helen for over a year preparing the Course for publication.
In 1983, Kenneth and Gloria began the Foundation for A Course in Miracles in Ardsley NY, which moved to Crompond NY, then Roscoe NY, Temecula (Ca.) and is now located in Henderson, Nevada. The Foundation’s principal purpose over the years has been to assist students in understanding the Course through classes, discussion groups, and written, audio, video, and digital publications. The depth of Ken’s understanding of the Course’s thought system, his clarity and humor, and his constant demonstration of the Course’s gentle message of peace thru forgiveness continue to attract large numbers of people to his writings and recordings. It is the Foundation’s mission since Ken’s passing in December of 2013 to assure that his truly remarkable legacy of teachings continues to be available, now and for future generations. His website: www.facim.org
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When you see a problem in someone else—sickness, mood, disposition—it is your mind that is in need of healing, not the one in whom the problem appears to reside.
There is only one problem…..ever. It is the idea of separation in the mind. If the indivisibility of a single whole mind is to be recognized, healing of the mind must occur.
A Course in Miracles is maddeningly relentless and impeccable in its teaching of non-duality. It leaves no un-swept corners in the mind where the ego’s belief in separation can remain hidden. One of those corners is our own good intentions to help others with their problems without first healing ourselves.
When we attempt to fix problems in someone else we are missing the point. It is an opportunity for our own healing, not someone else’s. Only a healed healer can heal. He heals by knowing we are all already healed. The certainty in his mind extends through his mind to other minds without him doing anything for which he could take either credit or blame.
This is not to say that one could not also do something in whatever form might be most helpful. However his certainty is that regardless of what he does in form, healing is already accomplished.
How different this is from fixing which can only occur where there is an idea of inequality and of “other”.
Yesterday someone tried to fix a problem that I thought I had. He first had to make the problem real by agreeing with it. He then took out his tools that he had learned in a training and began to try to fix my problem. The feeling that arose within me as this was going on was one of inequality. He, with his solution, was superior to me with my problem. Now we both had the same sickness, separation. There was no way out.
When we try to heal at the level of form we are attempting to keep the real problem which is in the mind. That way the ego, our false sense of self, is preserved.
This whole situation illustrated the important distinction between healing and fixing. If there is anything but perfect equality in any relationship the idea of competition has entered the mind. How can there be healing where there is one who is superior? Separation is reinforced rather than healed.
Unhealed healers believe the problem is where it is not, in the body and not the mind. The fact is that we are all already healed…..no exception. Minds are already joined and there is only one.
Nothing that is real that could possibly need fixing. Nothing unreal exists. We do not believe that however, or we wouldn’t be seeing the world of suffering that we see. It is the seer that needs to change the way in which he sees. He needs to learn to see with different eyes and hear with different ears. For that shift he needs a Teacher from beyond the world of form, one that doesn’t believe in differences of any kind.
A Course in Miracles teaches us how to make ourselves accessible to a Teacher who can show us how to look with a single eye from beyond the body and see a different world. This translocation of self from identification with the body to a singular consciousness is the awakened state we all pretend to seek and at the same time fear. It is the shift from the personal and the private, to the oneness of heaven and non-specificity. This is the land of “no-thing” and it is this that you and I fear. That’s what God is. And that’s what Love is. And thats what the Peace of God is. And that’s Heaven. And that’s what you are afraid of.
Would you like to live without fear? Would you like to experience Love? Would you like to be free of torment?
Please consider this today. There is a Presence that surrounds you, which is your Self. It is constantly informing you of your True Nature which is love without opposite. The environment in which it resides is a state of grace.
When you are absorbed in your body self, consumed with fear, conflict and self interest you cut off the possibility of harmonizing with this Loving Presence which would make your day purposeful and effortless.
Private (what about me?) thoughts of worry, anxiety, lack, inadequacy, and so on, must be brought to the light of this Presence so they can be shined away and you can return to alignment with the Self that you are. This is your responsibility now. This is your salvation and the salvation of the world.
Forgive your personal insanity and the insanity of the world so that this Presence can transform your thoughts and actions in this moment bringing peace to you and to the tired and aching world. This is your part in The Great Awakening that is occurring in all humanity now.
This strength is yours to feel and to give. It is your joy. Your part is essential now.